By Land or By Sea
by Plaguemoose
Summary: Rufio/OC NO DEATH / Just before Peter Banning shows up, Rufio discovers someone-or someTHING-else new lurking in the waters of Neverland. How much help can an outcast mermaid be? ...And how exactly does romance work with someone who has fins, anyway?


Rufio x OC

Intro

There are a lot of things about mermaids that most people don't know. It is generally assumed that they're very similar to humans, but this assumption is a very poor one, and they are, in fact, incredibly different in many ways. The first is that the few mermaids of Neverland who lounge in the lagoon are a very poor example over merpeople as a whole, and shouldn't be used as a standard for merperson physique or attitude. There are as many different kinds of merpeople as there are oceans and seas, reefs and deltas, lakes, rivers, ponds, and trenches. They exist with poisonous barbs, bioluminescence, varying amounts of blubber for warmth, double tail fins, every scale color under the sun, dorsal fins, spines, claws, fangs—there is no one true merperson standard.

The second large misconception about mermaids is that they are all just that: maids. While it is true that there are female merpeople, there are also male—those who go by mermen—as well as those who are somewhere in between, and those who are outside the spectrum entirely. Some merpeople change sex naturally as time passes, while others stay the same. Some change willingly, due to circumstances around them that demand a change for the population to continue reproducing, some change unwillingly because of environmental shifts, and still others choose to make the switch because they feel they started out in just not quite the right body. While the mermaids in the lagoon may seem cemented in their ways, overall, merpeople don't view gender and sex the same way that humans do. To them, much like to many other sea creatures, they're just different sets of parts that you may or may not enjoy having but sometimes need in order to create a new generation. There is little fuss over it, especially in mercultures that remain largely untouched by humans (Neverland pirates in particular).

Yet another little known fact is that many merpeople care very little for humans and their ways. It is very common that pirates hunt them, for sport and occasionally in an attempt to collect wives, and so it is generally better to steer clear of harbors, unless they offer high concentrations of edibles. Most merpeople don't care for human language, yet with their natural gift of tongues can pick it up quickly, and most care very little for exploring on land, though their magic will allow them to. Much like fairies and their ability to create pixie dust for non-flyers, merpeople have the ability to give themselves legs or, on occasion and with a fair amount of effort, give humans tails. But due to the dangers humans present, it is rare to find a merperson using these abilities.

The mermaids of Neverland's lagoon were of the group that inspired tales of beautiful maidens who kissed sailors and pined after them, and, fittingly, they always had a bit of a thing for the famed Peter Pan. Their outer-sea counterparts had trouble understanding it, but it wasn't their business nor their problem, and since the ladies stayed in their lagoon, there was no point in bothering them about it. They were vain and jealous creatures, but there was little reason to spend energy worrying about them when there were so many other things to pay attention to, especially when their bad attitudes came into the picture. They were very possessive of their small paradise, and if any outsiders were caught in it, they received an incredibly strong verbal response at the very least. They believed themselves to be the most beautiful of all, and to them and many pirates, they were. They mocked other merpeople, especially those from the deep, and hated hearing any praise of them. These were the mermaids that most people consider 'ideal,' and because of them, Akari found life around Neverland barely bearable.

Akari had no gender—at least, not by mer standards—and maidens of the lagoon looked down on them for it. Well, maybe not because of that fact in itself, but Akari believed it was at least a contributing factor; after all, there were so many other things for the girls to dislike. With a dark blue tail fading into greyish skin and many spines and smaller fins, Akari was far from a fairytale. Black hair, pointed ears, yellow eyes, webbed fingers, and rows and rows of glowing lines and dots were all features that were considered beautiful by deep sea merpeople, but not the mermaids of the lagoon, and since it was almost unheard of that a deep dweller ever ventured near the surface, Captain Hook and his pirates made the waters around Neverland deadly for Akari. Hook wanted the exotic creature, and Akari knew that if they were captured, it would be the end.

With the lagoon off limits and the harbor dangerous, Akari was forced to keep on the move, always circling Neverland in search of a meal, and resting only in one small cave under the mountain. It was connected to the ocean, and Akari presumed there was also an entrance to the Neverwood, not that they ever dared to go there. The hidden cavern was barely large enough for a full grown merperson, but it had a fair amount of clearance, with a high ceiling and lots of air, and a few rocks to sit on, and while it wasn't much, it was home. Akari kept a few trinkets there, things that pirates dropped into the water, but it was scarcely big enough to house anything like the pirates' hoards. Besides, it's not like Akari could really do anything with any valuables. Pirates hardly wanted to trade with merpeople.

It was a lonely life, fleeing pirates and living in caves. Even Lost Boys hadn't discovered the hidey-hole, and while relieved, Akari was also a bit sad. Merpeople were fairly social, and didn't usually stay so isolated for so long. It was lucky, then, that one morning, everything suddenly changed.


End file.
